January 24th, 2006
MPAA Accused of Movie Piracy
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which takes a dim view of illegal copying of movies, has itself been accused of illegally copying a movie. The movie in question is “This Film Is Not Yet Rated”, directed by Kirby Dick, which is actually a documentary critical of the MPAA’s rating system. Apparently the MPAA made copies of the film to distribute to its employees.
When Dick submitted his film for a rating, he asked in an e-mail for assurances that “no copies would be made of any part or all of the film,” according to a copy of the e-mail exchange.
In a reply e-mail, an MPAA representative did not specifically say the organization wouldn’t copy the film, but did say “the confidentiality of your film … is our first priority. Please feel assure (sic) that your film is in good hands.” Source: LA Times
We Say: The MPAA was pretty upset with Dick with regards to his film, as he allegedly followed members of the MPAA’s Classification and Rating Administration and rooted through trash bins for info for his film. His film also received an NC-17 rating for “some graphic sexual content.” Some of this is undoubtedly just barbs being flung back and forth. However, the MPAA’s website does say: “Movie pirates are thieves, plain and simple. Piracy is the unauthorized taking, copying or use of copyrighted materials without permission.”
Of course, the MPAA is not going to sell copies of this on street corners or upload it to BitTorrent, but they were specifically asked by the director to not make copies. I’m sure there’s no real legal issue, but since they did reassure Dick in an email, the MPAA has probably lost some credibility and trust.
Cheese Toast says:
I don’t sell or upload the copies of movies I make that I rent from Netflix either, but it still isn’t legal. But as we all know, if you have enough money or political pull (GWB), you can do anything you want.
January 24th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Michael Santo says:
Excellent point. We’ll have to see how this all shakes out.
January 24th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Mikey says:
How about he sends them a letter and demands $3 Billion dollars for “lost revenue” due to -UNAUTHORIZED PIRACY- to settle out of court? They could then demand to see the actual proof of that “lost revenue” and he could reply “because I say so”, just like the RIAA already has. (give me a break, I know it’s not the RIAA at the center of this, but the MPAA is just as bad. They do the same type of thing, for the same reasons…)
January 24th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Bill R. says:
They did make and distribute multiple copies of the film for some kind of use by their employees. How tolerant would they be of anybody else who did the same with one of their properties?
January 25th, 2006 at 8:52 am
AW says:
The Mpaa is not loseing mony from Piracy.
No Wonder why they had a bad year!! Hollywood & The movie cridicts have there head up there A**,I “used” to be a major movie Buff, Look at what they’re voteing on to the biggest blockbusters, Sleepers and topics that only a small % of the american public want to see ,such as Brokeback Moantain…My God what a boring movie, Who cares what the very small % of radicals want to see! They need to Fire the all the Movie cridicts and focus on what the MASS’s want to see.
Passion Of The Christ = Boring
March of the penguins = Sleeper
Date Movie = Stupid (even for kids)
The list goes on………:o))
March 12th, 2006 at 6:18 am
AW says:
The Mpaa is not loseing money from Piracy.
No Wonder why they had a bad year!! Hollywood & The movie cridicts have there head up there A**,I “used” to be a major movie Buff, Look at what they’re voteing on to the biggest blockbusters, Sleepers and topics that only a small % of the american public want to see ,such as Brokeback Moantain…My God what a boring movie, Who cares what the very small % of radicals want to see! They need to Fire the all the Movie cridicts and focus on what the MASS’s want to see.
Passion Of The Christ = Boring
March of the penguins = Sleeper
Date Movie = Stupid (even for kids)
The list goes on………:o))
March 12th, 2006 at 6:18 am
MoD says:
Aeon Flux.
The Hulk.
Alektra.
Daredevil.
Shanghai Knights (Shanghai Noon was hilarious though).
And many, many, many more.
8-out-of-10 movies I have seen have sucked.
And yet they still cost $15.99(US) at least. And $8.00 for one ticket at the theater where is costs $3.00 for a 32 ounce drink that tastes like bleach!
March 20th, 2006 at 4:36 am
Master_Frag says:
Well it seems that the MPAA*BLEH* are getting a taste of there own medicine. Going to say that they are as we speak are going after torrent sites just for the fact that there hosting *legit* .torrent files.
The MPAA have even put a hotlinked a site in a .pdf file.
it was however removed.
I am not speaking for everyone but i think the MPAA will fall under there own weight.
December 29th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
ClapekDodki says:
pisciate
July 16th, 2007 at 8:15 am
ClapekDodki says:
sesso i
n gruppo
July 17th, 2007 at 4:47 am